Success Stories

Stores

Elaine

"I joined Tigre Géant in Sainte-Thérèse as the fashion supervisor 9 years ago. What I enjoy the most is to watch us achieve great results from the right buying decision or simply a great idea. Tigre Géant allows you to try, even if that means making a mistake and then succeed."

Francine

"I have been with Tigre Géant in Sainte-Thérèse for 9 years as the Grocery Manager. During this time, I have gained more knowledge, learned new strategies on merchandising and enjoyed the constant challenges in sales opportunities. What makes us different from other retailers is that store owners have confidence in our abilities. They give us the opportunity to make buying decisions."

Mireille

"I first started with Tigre Géant in Beloeil as an associate in the men's department 4 years ago. After only 2 weeks, I was transferred to the women's department. After showing initiative and making changes to the department, proposing ideas to improve sales and also taking on new challenges, I was promoted to the fashions manager. What I enjoy the most about my role is the diversity, the newness, supervising and training team members, and being creative. At Tigre Géant, there is always something new and exciting. Every aspect of Tigre Géant is in constant evolution. This is not a boring job but rather a stimulating environment. We are always searching for new ideas and ways to improve the sales."

Nick

"I first started with Giant Tiger as a morning crew associate in a store where I was responsible for restocking shelves. After a year, I became a dairy/deli associate and soon after, I was the morning crew chief. I was then given the opportunity to become the Grocery Manager. What I enjoy the most of working at a Giant Tiger store is being able to help the company grow."

Ray

"I started as a full time associate with the Embrun, Ontario store in 1993. After joining the team, I realized what a rare opportunity I had found. I worked in different positions until the spring of 1997. When a new store in Casselman opened, I joined its team as a store Receiver. I worked a year in that position before being promoted to Assistant Manager. Four years later, I moved to our Ottawa large format stores to work on special projects such as training supervisors and associates, and developing various programs. In the spring of 2004, I became the store manager of Giant Tiger's first store in the United States, in Potsdam, New York. I returned to Canada in December of that year to manage the Giant Tiger store in Carleton Place and in August 2007 I became the Franchise Owner.

What I enjoy the most about Giant Tiger is the freedom to run the Giant Tiger store in Carleton Place as my own business. I am in control of every aspect of the business from selecting and ordering the merchandise, to hiring and store merchandising. Giant Tiger is still a privately owned All-Canadian company, which makes me feel proud to be part of it. Giant Tiger is a leader in community involvement and support. What makes Giant Tiger different from other retailers is that we are given all the tools, and the freedom to use these tools, to become as successful as we want to be."

Stephane

"My career with Giant Tiger started 18 years ago, as an assistant manager. I was looking for a stable job. I was able to gain experience by working in different markets and finally I became a Store Owner. What I enjoy the most of my current position is managing my own business. Partnership between the Home Office and the stores is what makes Giant Tiger different from other retailers."

Home Office

Carrie

"My career first started in clothing design but after 2 years my interest started to peak on the procurement side of retail. As fate would have it Giant Tiger was looking too. When I joined the team first in a support role to the Buying Team, our Paw Print was rather small within the Canadian Retail Landscape. Our processes were almost all manual and our product assortment was predominantly deal buys or manufacturer over runs. During those formative years, I enjoyed access to an army of mentors including our founder, Gordon Reid and many of the pioneers and visionaries that spearheaded where we are today as a national presence. I experienced first-hand their humility, tenacity and belief in creating an environment of collaboration and input from all team members: A key component to our core and model. As I honed my skills within our Hardgoods area on product knowledge and inventory management, one mentor continued to encourage and remind me to "Commit ongoing to improve". I then began to work with some of our vendors on product development that would be unique to Giant Tiger and realized how much I really enjoyed and missed the aspect of design.

When a position came up in our Softgoods division, I jumped at the chance to return to apparel and be able to utilize my skills in both disciplines of Buying & Product Development. I then acquired a whole new set of mentors, as we had over the years amassed some of the most talented and experienced clothing buyers in the Industry. Fate and luck hit once again!

Fast track a few years and today as a Merchandise Manager, I now oversee a team of Buyers, Product Sourcers and also enjoy managing our Creative Team that contributes to our apparel design and how we package and market our assortments to our Store Owners.

Operating in today's global market, fashion is at warp speed. Knowing when to maximize, minimize or simply move on, is vital to keep the customer interested and choosing your Brand. All achievable if you embrace change and most importantly "Commit ongoing to improve"."

Christine

"I first started at Giant Tiger as an administrative associate helping in the mailroom. I really had no idea that I would still be here 18 years later!

Giant Tiger and I have grown together - I've had a family, improved my French, gotten my degree and have worked in many different areas. As the company expanded, my responsibilities increased, and, after a few years, I was managing a department.

In 2011, I was promoted to senior management. As Director of Administration, Facilities and Health & Safety, I now lead a team responsible for everything from our Home Office reception and mailroom areas, to purchasing fixtures and supplies for our stores (shopping carts, displays, shopping bags), to negotiating service contracts, to our health and safety program and environmental initiatives such as recycling and energy savings. Most recently our team took on Service Revenue, which includes items such as lottery and gift cards.

Often it is hard to get recognized for accomplishments, but Giant Tiger has been receptive and supportive of new ideas, which has allowed me to be creative. Giant Tiger has given me the opportunity to pave my own path to success. I enjoy finding new ways to do things better. Whether it is lowering costs, redesigning a display fixture, or finding a more energy efficient light bulb, helping stores succeed is very gratifying.

I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different if I had not sent in my resume years ago - I cannot imagine that I would have gotten the same opportunities anywhere else. Thank you Giant Tiger. I still look forward to coming to work each day!"

Janie

"It was September 1991. I had just spent my birthday weekend unpacking in my new apartment, only to go to work on Monday and find out the Task Force I was working on was being dissolved effective immediately. I now had 3 weeks to figure out where my next month's rent was going to come from. Back to finding employment again!

Enter Giant Tiger and a series of interviews with the Manager of Administration (now CEO), Andy Gross at the Home Office at 98 George Street. Motivated by determination (and maybe fear of being homeless in a very near future), I did my best to convince him that I was going to be the "next big thing" and that the company would never have a better employee. I was tenacious, persistent and sold my attributes to the best of my abilities. Despite it all, he hired me.

For a while, Andy, another colleague and I formed the Administration & HR Department. My first order of business (in my mind anyway) was to correct this glaring typo that was on a multitude of documents. "Now" business should be "New" Business, no? How could that mistake be missed so many times? Unfortunately I had already corrected most of the forms and strategies I could get my hands on by the time Andy realized what I had done. So maybe I didn't impress anybody right off the bat but I did make an impression. I certainly was thorough and efficient!

My biggest responsibility was the planning and execution of our Store Owner/Manager meetings. We held 6 meetings annually and hosted 60 stores back then. These meetings were held at the Holiday Inn across the street (now the Courtyard Marriott) and I would spend the day on Sunday before the meetings carrying samples to the venue to prepare for the next 2 days. It was all good until I had to roll racks of clothing for the softgoods presentations across the street and would get ambushed by the street walkers. I literally had to stop and let them look through the clothes before I could continue my journey. All in a day's work!

As the years went on, I continued to work hard and make my way within this rapidly growing company. The greater the effort usually meant that my mistakes would be proportionate in significance, but I was determined to pursue my career among the people who had now become my family. Today, I work in the Advertising & Marketing Department as Manager of Public Relations and Community Activation. I no longer roll racks of clothing down the street but I still do my very best, every day."

Sally

"After a maternity leave, I decided ti was time to go back to work. Given I had several years of experience in buying; I decided to apply for a position on Giant Tiger's buying team. I started as a merchandise associate and after a few years I was promoted to a buying postion in the home fashions category, the Senior Buyer and I now currently hold the position of Merchandise Manager, responsible for the selection of linens, housewares, seasonal = BBQ, lawn and garden, garden furniture, fans and heaters.

What I enjoy the most of this position is that it is a fast paced job. It is exciting! Everyday has a new experience. I have the opportunity to travel and my most exciting and favorite destination is China. Each journey is an amazing experience!

Giant Tiger is a family business and the people make you feel like you are part of the family. The team is amazing. Teamwork! We are working together to achieve one goal: to give our customers the best price and best quality. Giant Tiger is a great place for people who work hard and set goals for themselves. By working hard and contributing to the success of Giant Tiger, in the end employees can achieve their goals. A company filled with great opportunity."

Scott

"In 1993 I started working night shifts in the distribution centre picking and preparing store orders in order to supplement my income while I pursued an art career. At that time we used a hand jigger with a skid on it and piled the boxes on it as we moved through the warehouse. When the stack reached 7 feet high or too heavy to pull, we put it in the shipping lane. There were nights where we picked over a couple tons of merchandise and pulled it through the warehouse behind us! I've never been in a better shape than I was in those years!

After getting married and having children, becoming an artist didn't make much financial sense and there were interesting possibilities with the Giant Tiger organization so I watched for job postings that had potential for me. When the IS department needed someone to clean about 150 retired computer terminals, I was asked to do it. This task is what started me into the world of building and repairing PCs and it eventually lead to another job in the IS department doing computer support for the stores and Home Office users. it was a great job as I got to know everybody in the Home Office and what their role was within the company. At that time, I had also been learning to build websites and I saw the advantages of communicating this way with the stores. My IS job then evolved into developing helpful information for our stores and posting it on our intranet site. The intranet development and learning finally lead to other possibilities including my current position as Manager, Store Layout and Design.

In 2011 Giant Tiger made a bold and important move to reinvigorate our stores with the New Store Experience program. Fortunately for me the NSE program required someone with my accumulated knowledge and experience to help fit the NSE ideals into the many different store types in the Giant Tiger system. I've had the wonderful opportunity to visit most of our stores from Edmonton to Nova Scotia while helping to create effective layouts for them. The change will be tremendous to the whole chain once it is complete and I'm proud to be a part of it all.

What makes Giant Tiger different from any other retailers is how friendly the staff is in every aspect of the company. Whether it is in the stores, distribution centre, Home Office or senior management, everybody is down to earth and anxious to do a great job. It is a real team environment! There are a lot of talented, bright people I deal with daily and it is a pleasure to watch their ideas help evolve the company and prepare for the future."

Tom

"I was working for another company as a Building Maintenance Associate when Giant Tiger purchased the facility I was working in. They needed maintenance personnel and I had experience in that building so it was a good fit for both of us and I started my career at Giant Tigeras a Building Maintenance Associate. After only two years of service, I applied for a position in the IS department as a Computer Hardware Technician. I had little experience working with computer hardware at the time but the hiring manager was confident that I could perform the tasks (thanks Heather). I picked up on it pretty quickly and, after a few more years, I progressed into a support role as a 1st Line Network Support Technician, supporting our Office, Distribution Centers, and stores. I stayed in that position for a few years and, when our department restructured, I was promoted to Desktop Support Supervisor, supervising our second line IS support team. After proving myself in a supervisory role, I took on the additional responsibilities of purchasing computer hardware and software as the IS Purchasing & Hardware Support Manager. As our department continued to grow, I took on the additional responsibility of our 1st Line Help Desk Support team. Today, with sixteen years of service and counting at Giant Tiger, I am the IS Help Desk and Purchasing Manager, managing our 1st and 2nd line support teams as well as our IS inventory

What puts Giant Tiger ahead of its competition is the team atmosphere. We are all part of a family here at Giant Tiger, and like a strong family, we are focused on doing whatever it takes to make Giant Tiger successful."

Distribution & Transportation

Bryan

"I began my career with Giant Tiger through a labour agency in the flow through department. Having been through 4-5 different jobs in the previous 2 years I quickly identified GT Wholesale Limited as a place I could see myself working for a long time. The environment was clean, associates were friendly and Management was present and accessible. Even though I was new to the scene the senior associates took an interest in my development and spent the time to ensure I understood my position. I was quickly transferred to nights and brought on as a full time order picker. From there I was given opportunities as a forklift operator, Team Leader and transitioned to Supervisory roles on the nightshift and then the weekend shift. Looking to expand my knowledge of the business I transferred into Logistics and then Health and Safety. All of these opportunities and experiences were offered to me over 9 years and it truly showed me that hard work and determination can take you places with the right company.

Most recently I was given a new opportunity and would prove to be my biggest challenge yet. I was awarded the position of Operations Manager of an entire distribution center with 65+ associates and 255,000 square feet or warehouse space.

The list of reasons why GT Wholesale Limited is the best place to work is a long one but the keys for me are the fact that every day there is a new challenge in a friendly, clean and safe environment where Management is truly involved and the associates work as a team. The company continues to be successful because of the Team culture and the company continues its remarkable growth every day. I hit my ten year mark with Giant Tiger this year and I could not imagine working anywhere else."